GUILTY
Blameworthy; culpable; having committed a TORT or crime; devoid of innocence.
An individual is guilty if he or she is respon-
sible for a delinquency or a criminal or civil
offense. When an accused is willing to accept
legal responsibility for a criminal act, he or she
pleads guilty. Similarly, a jury returns a verdict of
guilty upon finding that a defendant has com-
mitted a crime. In the event that a jury is not
convinced that a defendant has committed a
crime, jurors can return a verdict of not guilty,
which does not mean that the individual is inno-
cent or that the jurors are so convinced, but
rather that they do not believe sufficient evi-
dence has been presented to prove that the
defendant is guilty.
In civil lawsuits, the term guilty does not
imply criminal responsibility but refers to mis-
